A substantial remedy for happier living

by Lianne Metcalf

You will find no McMindfulness here—start your day in a happy, substantial way

Are you ever disappointed that you can’t seem to sustain and maintain practices of health? Do you go on exercises tangents? Do you get seduced by the latest trends in the hope for a quick fix? Do you think you have to mend what you think is broken?

I can assure you this is just your mind playing tricks with your habits of grief, habit of not feeling good enough, habit of stress…

Buddhist mindfulness meditation in it’s pure form offers a genuine method that you can apply to help relieve the systems of unease, unrest and dis-ease.

There is now ample research showing how effective mindful meditation is.

In a recently published article in the Age, ‘Is mindfulness all it’s cracked up to be?’, Jackie Dent writes ‘Widely seen as a path to happiness, mindfulness has become, according to US religious scholar David McMahan, “one of these things that can have many meanings and many uses for different people”. This has led to Dr Miles Neale, a Buddhist psychotherapist, dubbing it “McMindfulness”.’

In another article, Harvard neuroscientist Sara Lazar says that

“if you’re going to try it [meditation], you need to find a good teacher. Because it’s simple, but it’s also complex. You have to understand what’s going on in your mind. A good teacher is priceless.”

Due to the trend of mindfulness, I also suggest being very weary of all the new types of classes out there. I’m seeing many classes using the word mindfulness, and many practitioners with fewer than 12 months experience teaching it and blending it into other forms.

As Sara Lazar stated “a good teacher is priceless”. I have been fortunate to learn from some inspirational teachers – teachers who have had many years of meditation practice, and who have learnt from some of the greatest teachers of this century. Google—Dilgo Khyentse, Chogyam Trungpa, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, just to name a few.

We will soon have Jakob Leschley back with us this month to run an urban retreat. I have been studying with Jakob for 6 years. Jakob resides in Australia and teaches at the request of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, who has been my teacher for 18 years.

If you’re keen to learn mindfulness, I highly suggest you take part in this day retreat on the 20th of May. It is only $30 and you will receive clear, direct guidance from a highly experienced practitioner.

Not only are we running an urban retreat with a hugely experienced teacher, but each Monday we have pranayama and meditation at the studio. The studio has been running mindfulness practices for the past 8 years, taught by me and my husband Pete. It is much more than a practice for us. It is part of our lives. The class on Mondays is run by me. I have been studying meditation since my twenties (now in my fifties).

About Monday meditation practice: Start your day in a happy way

Pranayama exercises are done for about the first ten minutes. These will help clear and cleanse energy passageways throughout your body. We do a mindfulness practice for the next twenty minutes, followed by some gently stretching for about ten minutes. After the stretching we continue with contemplation, which includes meditation and sipping tea meditation, for the final twenty minutes. It is truly a wonderful class to start your week with.

About the mindful meditation day retreat

As I mentioned, we are very fortunate to have Jakob Leschley back in Melbourne to run a day retreat at the Abbotsford Convent. The day will start at 9am with an introduction, followed by sitting, walking, and sipping tea meditation. The cost is only $30.

Why meditate

‘Studies show that meditation is associated with improvement in a variety of psychological areas, including stress, anxiety, addiction, depression, eating disorders and cognitive function, among others. There’s also research to suggest that meditation can reduce blood pressure, pain response, stress hormone levels and even cellular health.’ ~ Huffington Post

2 Comments

Amber
on May 14, 2017 at 11:50 am

I would love to join, I’m a little unclear of date and time. Look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards
Amber